Progress of Banten depends on the people

By Ridwan M. Sijabat

CILEGON, Banten (JP): In entering the autonomy era, there is no doubt that the newly established Banten province lags in many areas particularly as it is sandwiched between two powerful provinces -- Jakarta and West Java.

Community figures in the province concede that while financial and institutional development are important, certain cultural and societal ethics which have persisted so far must change in order to spur on the new province's development.

Hakamuddin Djamal, Banten's acting governor, said the new province has great potential to achieve significant progress provided locals, and their political leaders, can change their way of thinking and adopt what he described as modernity.

"The key problem in the new province is how to help local people and the local political elite change their way of thinking and to be open to modernity," the acting governor said in an interview with The Jakarta Post at his office in Serang recently.

"A large part of the population is not educated."

He noted the irony that the province has great potential in areas such as mining, industry, fishing, tourism, agriculture, and trade, but lacked the necessary support of qualified human resources to realize that potential.

"The Banten sultanate was known for its international trade with European countries and had a trade mission in the United Kingdom and France during the 18th and 19th Centuries but now the majority are still living in poverty," he said.

Djamal pointed to the lack of education and various health problems plaguing numerous underdeveloped villages in the regencies of Lebak, Pandeglang and Serang.

Some parts of Banten, however, have been more exposed to the outside world such as Tangerang which has seen tremendous infrastructural development due to the presence of industry there.

Djamal, a former specialist staffer with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy, said people in Banten must learn how to practice democracy as stipulated in the 1999 law on regional autonomy.

"Being democratic means a readiness to accept defeat in the decision and policy-making processes and not to resort to force or anarchic and destructive actions," he said while lamenting the politics of fear used during the recent election for regent in Pandeglang and the mayoral election in Cilegon.

Hundreds in Pandeglang residents staged a series of demonstrations demanding newly-elected regent Achmad Dymiaty Natakusumah step down. A hand grenade was even lobbed at his official residence.

"To be consistent with democracy, for example, people in Pandeglang and their leaders should accept Dymiaty's eletoral success in the election by the regency council and give him the opportunity to develop the regency," Djamal said.

Djamal asserted that he did not wish to see a recurrence of such anarchy in the coming provincial council and gubernatorial elections due to be held in about five months.

Nevertheless he conceded that the elections, the first ever in the province, are "expected to be colored by political disturbances, mass rallies and the politics of fear because the people and the political elite aren't ready to implement democracy."

He pointed to the use of money politics and the presence of religious extremist groups and informal youth organizations as the causes of the raucousness.

"In the case of regent elections, for example, what's important to them is not how candidates gain a majority of votes in a democratic election but how candidates mobilize the masses and existing informal groups to press the legislative council to vote for them," he said.

Tubagus Hasan, an influential community figure in Serang, called on locals to discard such methods and to develop a modern and civilized Banten.

"The establishment of Banten as a new province and regional autonomy are golden opportunities for people to develop themselves in all fields. The people should no longer sleep in idleness and should give up their dependence on the province's rich natural resources," he said.

He warned indigenous groups in the province that they would be left behind by economic development if they themselves did not actively participate in the development process.

Hasan also called on the government and investors putting their money into the province to pay serious attention to the development of the education sector, especially in improving workers' skills, and to helping improve the local people's political awareness.

"Education is a serious problem that needs an urgent solution. To improve the quality of human resources in the new province, local administrations, investors, private educational foundations should all establish more educational institutes and training centers for the farming, fishing and plantation sectors, especially in rural areas," he said.

Aly Yahya, a local figure in Pandeglang, called on provincial politicians to help educate the people and improve their political awareness.

"The local political elite in the administration, legislative council and other institutions should give a good example, especially to their supporters, in exercising their democratic rights," he said.

Aly, also a legislator from the Golkar Party in the House of Representatives, called on the provincial administration to promote a participative development model to empower local people.

"With this model, the people should be persuaded to participate in development programs in all sectors in an effort to narrow the widening disparity between rural and urban areas, between the grassroots and the political elite and between one regency and another," he said.